Exceptional Measurement of Chirality

(rsc.org)

34 points | by bryanrasmussen 7 days ago

3 comments

  • gorgoiler 1 day ago
    Of interest on the topic of determining chirality: How would you teach left from right to an alien civilization:

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2936682

    Odd that it this paradox isn’t mentioned in the RSC article but it is probably assumed that everyone with a degree in Chemistry has come across the puzzle before. How do you explain to an alien, or some person with whom you share no cultural background, what “left” and “right” are solely by talking to them over the phone? You’d better get it right — not only would a handshake be awkward if you got it wrong, they might also turn out to be made of antimatter!

    https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_52.html

    • cma 15 hours ago
      One resolution could be observe neutrinos from the same cosmic source and it could be resolved over the phone still.

      I think the first neutrino observations from cosmic sources were after Feynman's lecture though.

  • gavinray 1 day ago
    Would the use for this be when you need exact enantiomer composition, versus a polarimeter which just tells you "racemic or not"?
  • slyrus 1 day ago
    2019. Somebody probably has a flow-matching/diffusion/foundation model chirality determination by now.
    • ThrowawayTestr 1 day ago
      Trained on data provided by this new technique